Emergency Medical Operations

The Bend Fire Department responds to Emergency Medical Service (EMS) calls over a 1600 square mile area of Deschutes County and a portion of Crook County. To put this in perspective, we provide EMS to an area greater in size than the state of Rhode Island. This is known as our Ambulance Service Area (ASA).

Because of this large distance, we interface with EMS partners regularly. Oregon Department of Transportation workers who are first responders assist us in the far east communities of Millican, Brothers, and Hampton. At the Mt. Bachelor Ski Resort we work with the Ski Patrol and with the Mountain Medical Clinic. We depend on the assistance of the Deschutes County Search and Rescue with wilderness extrication and for the use of snowmobiles. We also use Air Link of Oregon and Life Flight Network to assist us with urgent transport of critical patients.

Each of our five stations have crews that have at least one paramedic per station. Every one of our paid crew members is an EMT at the Basic, Intermediate or at the Paramedic level. Inside each station are vehicles that have equipment and medications to provide Advanced Life Support. This equipment is found on our six engines and seven ambulances. This allows us to bring Advanced Life Support to your home faster, as a fire engine may be closer than the ambulance that is responding to your medical emergency.

It is very common for observers to be puzzled when a fire engine pulls up to the medical emergency instead of an ambulance. To ensure the fastest response we dispatch the closest unit to provide medical care until an ambulance can arrive. If a fire engine arrives first, the crew can provide Advanced Life Support Care until the ambulance arrives for the transport to the hospital.